PATNA, May 16 -- In a major boost to sports facilities in rural Bihar, around three thousand playgrounds equipped with modern facilities like basketball courts, running tracks, cricket and football ground have come up at block level and panchayats in last five months as part of the ongoing constructions of such facilities under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The construction works of play grounds started in full swing under MGNREGS in December last year and has picked up momentum in last few months. Officials said out of 5,799 schemes for play grounds to be set up in 8,053 gram panchayats under 534 blocks, work has been completed in 2,843 schemes where facilities like running tracks, basketball courts, cricket grounds, football grounds have come up. The total number of playgrounds to be constructed is 6,600, officials said. Secretary, Rural Development Department, Lokesh Kumar Singh, said that the construction work of the playgrounds are going on in full swing with the panchayats coordinating the works, including the purchase of the equipment for the playgrounds. "We hope to complete the total number of targeted playgrounds by June this year," said Singh. "In majority of the playgrounds, there is a basket ball court. This is something very new for Bihar as youths and teenagers in the rural areas would now have the facility to play basketball," said a MGNREGS official. The playgrounds already completed are being handed over to the education and sports department, which would be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of these facilities, officials said. The construction work of playgrounds under MGNREGS, a job guarantee employment scheme for rural unskilled workers, was included last year by the state government. The project started off , last year, by identifying open government fields near schools in panchayat and block level. The playgrounds being constructed has different area and are in three categories. One , having less than one acre of area, second having a size of one acre to one-and-a-half acre and third having more than three acre. "In those play ground where the size is small and a basketball court cannot be constructed, there is facilities like kabbadi , kho-kho and other games apart from cricket ground," said another official, in know of the matter. The districts where the playgrounds have come up in large number include Gaya, Darbhanga, Gopalganj, Katihar, Banka, Begusarai, Araria, Madhepura, Madhbubani, Muzaffarpur, Patna, West Champaran, East Champaran, Purnea, Rohtas, Samastipur, Saran and Siwan....